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Dr. Justin Marchegiani and Bridgit Danner engage in a discussion about hormone issues in women at the age of 40. Learn how hormones work and understand their driving factors and effects on women.
Gain beneficial information about hormonal balance and imbalance. Find out about the diseases one can get from an unbalanced diet and lifestyle. Be informed on ways to cope with hormonal problems as Dr. Bridgit Danner shares some tips and natural solutions based on her knowledge and expertise as a functional medicine doctor.
In this episode, we will cover:
11:05 How Sugar Intake Affects Hormones
25:35 Relationship Between Cholesterol and Menopause
33:10 Liver Detoxification and Hormone Balancing
39:52 Supplements to Balance Hormones
46:53 Cortisol Spikes at a Time in a Day
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Hey there. It’s Dr. Justin Marchegiani. Today we have Bridgit Danner on the Podcast, really excited. She’s got a new summit, “Hormone Balance After 40,” coming out in the next few weeks, so we’re excited to talk about some female hormone issues and drop some serious knowledge bombs today. Bridgit, how are you doing?
Bridgit Banner: Great. Thanks for having me on Justin.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Great. Well, I know we kind of were doing a little recording earlier and got cut off, but let’s continue with that question. So you did a summit. You interviewed lots of experts on female hormone issues. What were those top three nuggets that you gleaned from the summit. Now, obviously there will be a “Summaries” we want everyone to tune in. We’ll put links below so people can access this great info too. But what are those couple of tidbit nuggets?
Bridgit Banner: Yes, and I say number one is, you know, menopauses. Inevitable. But uh– your symptom level is changeable. So, you know, it’s not like oh well I just have to have Hot Flashes, or gain 20 pounds, or…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Bridgit Banner: …get an Ambien like, no. So- but just like you do on your practice, it’s often getting to the root of like, “how did you get into perimenopause”, “in an imbalance state, are you exposed to toxins”, “do you have a gut infection”, “are your adrenals running down.” So, you know it can be a- a tough time for women, but also a great time to like okay– like maybe I’ve been ignoring my health a bit as I’ve crushed my 30’s and like raised kids. And, you know, now it’s like I’m starting to feel something’s catching up to me. You know, I want to eat well. I want my hormones to be as balanced as they can. And there is, there is a lot to be offered. And there’s a lot to learn. So that’s, that’s one thing. Another thing we talked about a minute ago was uhmm– the good fats and oils. Wow, just– there’s like, one great tip I have for women at this age group is adding in some beneficial oils that help your hormone production, help your prostaglandin production, uhhmm–, things like borage oil and hemp oil. These, these things, they’re not food we eat, really.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: You know. We talked about Paleo. Yeah great. There’s some great ingredients there but, like, no one eats, like, borage flowers.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Borage oil or black currant seed oil too.
Bridgit Banner: No. No one has those things.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: So those can be some really beneficial supplement. Uhhmm– another one comes to mind is sleeping. You know, working on improving sleep quality at this age because it can really be disrupted as your hormones change. But yeah, it’s so important because we’re healing. And yeah I wrote an article like sleep is our fountain of youth because we have all these growth hormones that happens when we sleep. So it’s so important to get good night sleep. There’s lots of things we covered. One talk I really liked was on metabolism, which I think is like, women are just like, “Oh well, I’m screwed after 40, you know, my metabolism.” But that’s not really true though. And that can be, that can be hacked. Uhhmm– it’s just mentioning Dr. Rina Marie ____?Liscosov?____...
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: … on awesome talks about blood sugar and how balancing blood sugar is, is incredibly powerful as we age to, you know, stay energetic. So, yeah. Lots of, lots of good options. There is hope.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Very cool. And you mentioned that first one where you’re talking about prostaglandins or the eicosanoids, which are the same thing. And we have kind of our, our One, Two, and Three pathway. The Two is really, like, the inflammatory, like the pro, like, the refined vegetable oil tend to go that pathway a lot, like, the refined meat tends to go down that pathway. Then we have the One and the Three, right which you mentioned. And the Three is like the big one that we hit with some of those Omega-6 fats but the healthy kind of Gamma-lenoleic fats – the black currant, the borage oil, right? Is that correct? Is that a good summary?
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. I kind of remember that I’ve looked up at the three pathways, and now I can’t remember which number is which. So you see, but yeah, basically there gonna be balancing inflammation, anti-inflammatory, uhh – building hormones. Just all the good stuff. You know, you need all of them.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Bridgit Banner: The body needs the total balancing. Heck, some inflammation is good. Some increase in blood pressure is good. But then you need something to balance in like…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Bridgit Banner: …being able to get the blood pressure back down. So yeah, those, those are really – and fish oil too. You know, fish oil is in as much like in vogue as, you know, when everyone start to take you to, you know, ten years ago or whatever.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: But it’s still valuable, and an– as also anti-inflammatory…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Bridgit Banner: …sparks these pathways too.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, I think the fish oil really helps that prostaglandin in Two pathway and kind of dampen it. And then we have the One and the Three which on those paths, and I see Gamma-lenoleic fat like you mentioned. Then it also helped with hormonal acne too. So if you’re female and you have done a lot of good diet changes but you’re still having some skin stopple. Number one always cross off the gut too, right. That’s the really important thing. But if the guts addressed, I see the black currant or the borage oil – those types of oils really help the skin health too.
Bridgit Banner: And the Zinc? Do you guys use Zinc in your practice?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Oh, Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah, that’s– I’m learning more about Zinc, and it’s good for skin health, good for helping you make progesterone. Uh–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: …and it’s in meat and stuff, you know, talking about a Paleo diet but you know, it’s all– we still could be not getting enough, or not digesting enough, so uhhmm– you know, how much it take. You know, one of my friends is careful about metals. She’s like don’t take too much Zinc. But, you know, I think, if you’re going through some of these hormonal changes, you could do more, like 30 milligrams Zinc. Uhhmm– you know, really up those fatty acids, and, you know, just see how you respond.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. I think, too, if you’re low in Zinc, you really take a peek at the hydrochloric acid levels. Make sure you’re digesting those healthy meats, ‘cause meats are gonna be the big source. Seafood, meats, I think pumpkin seeds as well are really big in Zinc, as well.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. Linolate in seeds. Ahuh.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. And a couple objective ways to even tell how you’re doing with Zinc is, number one, look at your blood test. Look at the alkaline phosphatase marker. If you’re 50 or below, there could be a sign of Zinc deficiency, and then number two is a Zinc Tally Test. I think it’s a Zinc Chloride. I think It’s a Zinc Chloride or salt – one of the two. Take a shot of that, and if it taste metallic-y that’s the sign that you probably are Zinc-sufficient. If it taste more liquid or neutral, it’s a sign of your being Zinc-deficient. The better it taste means the more you need it. The more metallic-y, the more you kind of being repulsed by it, meaning the less – you say, the more replete you are of it.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. It’s one of the funniest test to get in the clinic…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: … ‘cause like, you know, like, “What am I doing. What am I supposed to be experiencing?” And I’ve also found in my practice that it’s often is best to start in the liquid Zinc to like – once you start to absorb some, then you tend to– let you switch to a pill. I’m not really sure what it is. Is it a digestion issue? I just feel it often works better to start from like a couple of bottles of the liquid. You’re not really getting a high dose, but it seems to like absorb better.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Better. Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: And then you can take Zinc pill.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I totally agree. I think the only thing is to know with Zinc if you’re gonna go really high just make sure there’s a tiny Copper in there just so you don’t throw the Copper too much. You know, ‘cause Zinc and Copper are on the seesaws. So if you go really high in Zinc, they can rob the Copper down. But there’s a lot of people that are worried of Copper toxicity anyway, so if you…
Bridgit Banner: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …are gonna go above a hundred milligram or so, add a tiny bit of Copper in there.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. Most of us, are– a hundred milligram, yeah, is a lot. And most of us are getting sources of Copper but not enough of Zinc.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I hundred percent agree. So that was tip number one with the really good Omega-6 fatty acids – the healthy Omega-6, not the refined fish oils. What’s number two?
Bridgit Banner: Uh– tip from the whole summit? Hmmmn–.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Just what resonate with you the most? ‘Cause you’re also a clinician. A clinician looks at things a lot differently. You know, you’re looking at things of, “hey what can I do to actually change a clinical outcome of my patients.”
Bridgit Banner: Well, I’ll tell you something we beat up a lot, up on a lot in the summit well– which is wine. You know it’s almost like become a caricature of a middle-aged woman with a glass of wine. You know, wine with the friends, with to come down, and I think it’s, perhaps it’s like, it starts with like a self-medication. It starts like from a busy day, and like it helps me sleep, and then it starts to be real consistent. And, you know, some people listening to your show might be having some couple glasses of wine every night, but they still may be having some more than they need to be. Because they don’t really need it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Bridgit Banner: So I think, you know, it’s a change we people like don’t wanna make at first but if you say like I, I would say, you know, don’t feel like you have to do it forever. You know, give me a month. Give me a month, and say I’ll do this for a month, and then just see what happens in your body. And, you know, see if you lose weights, see if you’re thinking clear, see if you have more energy in the morning. So yeah I think that those things in midlife that women tend to be like turning towards, that we can turn away from, and have – you know. Those are coping mechanisms, you know. Coping even for a social situations. Like when I’m nervous, I kind’a have that strength, you know. It’s just coping but you know midlife is about expanding, and like becoming more and better, and not just coping. And you know, let’s tune in and like give and tell how to go to bed sooner. You know, all those basics first. Swing then to some more specifics. But you gotta do the basics first, right? You can’t be like. “Oh no, I can’t be this way. I can’t. I’m anxious.” You gotta take that one out. Just try to take out little sweet things, all that blood sugar, you know roller coaster. It’s depleting you of nutrients that you need to make hormones. It’s just making you feel off. And with midlife, and we talk about what the hormones are doing in midlife. There’s just that already a propensity, if we’re not careful, to go a little off and feel a little off. So just wanna create like steadiness in our habits and bodies so that we can weather those changes easier.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. That makes a lot of sense. In Dr. Diana Schwarzbein’s books, she did a book, The Schwarzbein’s Principle, about ten years ago. She’s a – an endocrinologist at the Sta. Barbara, USC Grad, and she talks about women turning towards wine because they’re a natural polyphenols that really help modulate estrogen levels. So as you go into menopause, those ovaries aren’t producing as much hormones, and the adrenals are being relied upon more, right? So the more you swing the blood sugar, the more blood the adrenals get whipped. Anyway, it’s kind of modulating some of those estrogen receptor sites.
Bridgit Banner: Huh– I hadn’t heard about that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I heard people going into the alcohol.
Bridgit Banner: I hadn’t heard about that. But then there’s also like modulate serotonin which makes us feel good at the moment. You know…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well alcohol’s a sugar, right? It’ll break down the sugar, and sugar will boost up serotonin, dopamine as well. So, I think there’s a lot of different things that are happening there for sure.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Cool. So that’s number two. I think you alluded to with the sugar as well, because when you take sugar, right, you get this hormonal adrenal roller coaster ride – insulin on the high, Cortisol on the low. Meaning when your blood sugar goes up, pancreas produces insulin to push it back down, which then drives more lipogenesis fat creation. But then when the bottom’s __?zow?___, the adrenals have to pick it back up. Adrenaline and Cortisol which then pull from some of your sex hormones. Can you talk more about blood sugar roller coaster with hormones?
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. So, one thing is like for insulin resistance, we cannot, hormone receptors can get blocked up. Uhhmm– so that’s one thing. It definitely can hurt your gut environment, bacterial imbalance, and you need your gut health to clear used estrogens. So even though hormones are coming down, some of the estrogen is often dominant. Progesterone’s falling faster because not every month we ovulate, it’s not very strong. So we need our gut healthy to clear estrogen. I was just doing some research recently and even just like one drink a day can give you SIBO. Uhhmm– yeah, like, there’s, you can’t feed that stuff. You really need to– I get heat up a lot in the summit. And that healthy gut – I’ve kind’a had clients too. You know we just took on and agreed with clients on our coaching program. Man, the stuff we find in our guts are all sorts of things.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Bridgit Banner: So, it could be hard to make that connection between the gut and hormones, but it’s going on. It’s happening. So, if you can nourish that gut, and not feed it sugars, you know that’s one way to clear. Uh– what else? I mean, I think that most of sugary foods yeah– are devoid of nutrients, and they’re hard on your pancreas, and in your, in your insulin. But they are also hard on your liver, you know, to be processing and dealing with that. And you need your liver healthy to be, you know, doing its job of clearing homrmones and all that stuff, so yeah. Avoiding toxins, when there’s your food being toxic, your body cream, or your perfume, or your, you know carby cleaner. You know, just…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Bridgit Banner: …really what, cutting down on all that stuff. We kind’a segued on the topic. But that came out a lot too, just like, maybe it’s time that– say, maybe if you think that well this stuff never bothered me before, but now if you’re having hormonal symptoms, it’s time to reassess.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: That makes a lot of sense. So hormones are really affected by a lot of these toxins, ‘cause a lot of these toxins are essentially Xenoestrogens, right? ‘Xeno’ means ‘far’ and ‘estrogen’ is an ‘estrogen’ hormone. So if we’re getting impacted by a Xenoestrogen in the environment through pesticides, through chemicals, cleaning products, that can really affect our hormones, can’t it?
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. Very much so, and you know, all stored fat tissue can make extra estrogen too. Or we, you know we make fat tissue as a place to store toxins that our liver can’t handle processing because it’s, you know, so busy handling everything else. So from the connections we did, the toxins and the fat tissue and uhhmm– you know women, say, really our concern about gaining weight at this age as well. So yeah, cleaning up your habits. I mean, nowadays, there’s so many options, and they weren’t all nasty. But there’s not a research in this uhhmm– like clean, you know, clean hands soap without fragrance, then you know, one I mentioned carpet cleaner like. It’s funny sometimes you, where you forgot to look like where you forget to look like. At our, our old house, we had a carpet cleaner, and I just buy like a standard mix that you stick in there. And I realize, “Oh my gosh. What am I doing, like, this is full of chemicals.” I don’t know where in the world will I ever go to get like a natural carpet cleaner soap. And it’s, it was like one mile away – my natural grocery store. So sometimes it’s like you just forget to check certain things, but start checking. You start looking at your labels. Uhhmm– I have this, you know, I’m really hitting homes to eat organic as much as possible. And those little cheat treats, and treaks– excuse me, treats and cheese we do, those are often why we’re getting exposed to the most toxins. Like you know, if you have a little cheat and have something like a cookie, you know that, that we may have been sprayed with glyphosate, and that’s like very toxic to your gut that we talked about. It’s like an anabolic for your gut. So, I, you know, it sounds like a lot of work to be like, “Oh I have to be so clean and pure.” This sounds so horrible, but you know, just do it like it an experiment, and also know like you’re worth it. It’s not like, like, “I have to be healthy, like it’s the worst thing ever.” It’s like you can very much be happy enjoying a healthy lifestyle as you and I do. ‘Cause you have more mental power. You know, it’s like, you’re more comfortable on honestly with yourself. You’re getting a good night sleep when your moods are more balanced. You just like, life can like, be anything that you want when you’re healthy. But when you’re scoping, and having a cookie, and a coffee and whatnot, then you’re standing by. It’s gonna catch up to you too. We have one of our ____ to talked about disease, like cancer. You know, sadly, those are around the corner. You know in our 40’s that could happen. It’s gonna happen sooner but I think like when I was in my 30’s those just sounds like concepts, so far away, but, they’re coming for you. So, midlife is a great time to get better habits ‘cause no one wants to be, you know, in the doctor’s office talking about a heart disease, or could have been cancer. You know what one’s at.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I mean when you’re dealing with lots of, for me in the patients’ sects. I’m interacting with lots of patients every week. We always talk about getting people to a baseline level of health, because, once people get there, the little bit of cheating that they do at the other side of the fence may throw them out of that performance on for days. The reward you get for here just is not worth the momentary, few minutes, maybe an hour of pleasure, right? So number two is figure out what that thing you want over here – let’s just say it’s alcohol. There’s different versions of alcohol. Not all alcohol are the same, right? I think it’s Dry Crepe Wines, they got a really good wine that’s gonna be low on microtoxin, low on all of the crap and the excipients and also low on the sugar. So if you want wine, they’re healthy versions of wine, healthy versions of alcohol, healthy versions of treats that will give you that mull feel, that pleasure, but not take you out of that performance zone for very long.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah yes, I know. I tried those wines, and they gave me a headache in like three sips. It doesn’t work for me. And it might just be the sugars. I know they say it’s zero sugar, I think that’s what they say with the Dry Crepe Wines, but that wasn’t my experience. So, I…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And for me too, I’m on the same place. I normally get headaches. I typically don’t do wine. I do a sparkling champagne, or I do hard alcohol, Tito’s vodka with kombucha, ginger kombucha. Then I make my own little Moscow mule. Either that. So, those are my two favorites. So I agree, not a big wine person outside of the Sparkle.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah, yeah, there’s different options. I mean, I recently got my Galitoxin and I have some Candida there. And you know, I don’t have a a word but sometimes, the way I react to sugar and alcohol is a bust since the Candida. Loving it up as soon as it comes in my mouth. So, kind’a listen to your body too. Uhh– yeah. Don’t just listen to me and Dr. Justin. Just try stuff, you know, try giving up wine for and if, you know, try getting it back in and see, you know, what your limit is. Like what is – you know, not that I never ever had a drink, but it’s pretty rare, because I just don’t want to hinder the progressions so just a month. But then yeah, everybody’s gonna find their different thing, but I think to clean up and say it’s temporary, it’s something I’m doing for my health to experiment, then you get to be the owner of how much you put it back.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely, men. Tip number two is that don’t drink alcohol on an empty stomach, ‘cause that will, a little bit of fat in there will slow down that absorption so it won’t spike your blood sugar, hit your liver as hard. And then number two, activated charcoal is phenomenal, the kind of buff around those toxic bird too.
Bridgit Banner: I don’t know, like after an evening? Or..
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I typically take it along with it. And then a …
Bridgit Banner: Uhh–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: … a lot of time I’ll take my line, I use a liver supreme which is like milk thistle and some extra B Vitamins. You know so you get some herbs to tonify the liver a bit. And then some extra B vitamins which, you know, your body will burn out to actually help detoxify the alcohol, as well. A lot of alcoholics are deficient in B1.
Bridgit Banner: Hhhn– interesting. I’ll pay that man that say I use charcoal or clay like a fat instantly when I feel bloated. I’ve been telling that all to my clients ‘cause it’s like yeah, we wanna avoid those things that make us feel bloated. But sometimes to we accidentally have them. And then, urrh– so, those two things really helped me to take in the evening if I’m feeling.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Even conventional medicine, I mean, I went to an ER, college roommate, many years back, ___ him on alcohol and at the ER. I mean they had him drinking the whole cup of activated charcoal in liquid form, in the ER.
Bridgit Banner: Oh my God.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: So even in the ER, all that stuff.
Bridgit Banner: Interesting.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: Interesting.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Crazy, yeah. Back to the female hormone stuff. Tip number three.
Bridgit Banner: Hmmmm.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: By the way, we got some questions lined up, so once we get through with the…
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. I like it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …go to a rapid, rapid answer. Kind of a Q and A.
Bridgit Banner: Okay. Let’s see. Some other things that came up on the summit, say are like, ‘spacing out your eating’ came up. Having a longer time between dinner and breakfast. You know, not snacking, kind of for blood sugar, and also for gut. There’s a certain bacteria, I can’t remember what it’s called. It needs long and regular periods. We built it soft, so having that space with a gut. What else did we talk about? Oh we talked a little bit about Keto and you know, having that high fat diet, not being afraid of fats. The only interesting that came up on that talk was fiber? Uhhmm– and that it can, it’s irritating, so, you know, thinking like you need a ton of salads and vegetables, or grains, or whatever. It’s irritating, you know. But you can eat some rich foods like liver, that actually, oh, oh my God. For some people that I know. But that, that came out of my speaker thing. I’m not always the greatest to remember my tips, like my, like from my – you know, like from my– let me try to see some of my speakers…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Cool.
Bridgit Banner: … to see the fun things we talked about.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes. So while you’re doing that, to– yeah, yeah. Let’s head up to some questions. So off the bat, Diana wants to know, do grains, of course, could grain-free, of course – Do grains, I think she’s referring to Gluten-free, do grains, like corn and rice, increase bad estrogens? Why do some people do so well on grains, I don’t?
Bridgit Banner: Hmmmm– That’s a great question. So I think we could say that’s possible that some grains could push that, and you know you should try it on those stuff soon.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. Yeah. I would say, I would say off the bat, I would say off the bat, there’s a higher level of Gluten-sensitivity genetically with yourself Diana. That’s gonna create more inflammation, a more leaky gut. That’s number one. The more inflammation that’s going on there that’s gonna take your hormones out of balance because with the more inflamed you are, Cortisol’s gonna increase, Insulin maybe out of balance, that may skew your progesterone to estrogen ratio, ‘cause you’ll pull progesterone downstream to anti-inflammatory Cortisol so that can create more estrogen dominance. Also, a lot of grains are gonna be contaminated with microtoxins and can increase LPS in the gut. And the more lipopolysaccharide that’s there as well that can potentially increase beta-glucuronidase, which is an enzyme that deconjugates metabolized estrogen and puts it back in the circulation. So the more inflammatory foods, the more foods that feed this biosis, where bad bacteria increases beta-glucuronidase which can unconjugate–deconjugate. So conjugation is nothing more than a hormone with a straightjacket around it that’s typically a protein. And that beta-glucuronidase opens it up and allows it back in the circulation which can affect your hormones so for sure.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. That’s probably a lot more detailed than what I’d say. I would say, you did a good– you potentially irritate your gut and create some inflammation. I even wonder if some of them could like we talked about those prostaglandin pathways earlier. I wonder if some of them could push some of those more inflammatory pathways. And then I think like with stress, chronic stress, you know, your gut lining can be thinner, and not as robust, and then things are more irritating too. And then the quantities that’s really easy to overeat – grains, uhhmm– and then carbs, and then that sugar, and like, you know, the fat tissue produces more estrogen, the inflammation is blocking the receptors.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: I think that for women, life is really finding ratio in their diets. Like, what is like, enough carbs and oils, if you know, what is like a serving size, or, you know, how many drinks is like, you know, that pushes me over, well kind of bloated. You know, it might not clear in my head anymore. So I think finding that ratio is really important. And still while women are having a protein, and a protein in the morning, you start– you brought this in your talk. Uhhmm– yeah, just getting like those whole animal, like cooking the whole chicken, getting a lot, like robust, you know, variety of fats. Uhhmm– anything is okay to have some like we talked about the nuts, seeds oils to, to do some seeds cycling. Uhh– we have like, a blog people can find to do some seed cycling challenge. People really went with that. Probably the fiber, probably the oils on those nuts and seeds can be helpful.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Absolutely. Totally. Next stop here is there relationship, is there a relationship with cholesterol, high cholesterol and menopause?
Bridgit Banner: Yeah? So we, I kind’a heard two things, I would say two things. One is that we need cholesterol to make hormones, so sometimes it’s rising up like naturally to produce more hormones in this time. Uhhmm– but then our keynote speaker would say, you know, if you’re not eating, consuming enough cholesterol, your body will be forced to make more cholesterol. So we wanna to kind of avoid that by giving our body that cholesterols. Uhhmm – say the question again. Was it the correlation…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, so there’s a connection – the relationship between menopause occurring and higher cholesterol.
Bridgit Banner: I think there is an occurrence with it. But I think it’s, if you feel your cholesterol is out of range and those speeches are like debatable. But, you know, our speaker on Heart Health said, you know, that the quickest way to heart disease is through sugar. So it’s more like, body’s getting inflamed from the sugar, and then cholesterol is kind of increasing to repair it. So, I think to some extent, cholesterol could go up at this age naturally? But if it’s like sky high and your diet is very poor, full of sugars, it could be something to look at.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I agree. I mean if you, if your diet isn’t quite in check in insulin resistance going on, that will get worse over time, and insulin does drive that hemometagluteracoreboductase enzyme that stimulates cholesterol synthesis. We can’t forget that majority of cholesterols may be by your liver. Typically, insulin sort of drive it. Poor diet doesn’t have insulin to check. That’s one vector. A second vector that could be a subclinical thyroid issue, and low thyroid function will cost cholesterol…
Bridgit Banner: That’s true.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …to go up.
Bridgit Banner: It’s a good point. Yeah. This is uhhmm – I would. The most common time to be diagnosed is menopausal. But second to that is perimenopausal, post-partum, uhh– I think puberty is in there. I don’t, I don’t work for that age group as much but, yeah all, every time the hormones’ changing, the estrogen can be dominant, think about after you have a PB, estrogen is very high ‘cause you’re not cycling. It’s not as high as, you know, the other times, but there’s an imbalance. There’s other things we could talk about too, but uhhmm– when the estrogen is like affecting, estrogen being high and relative to progesterone is affecting your immune system, and that could be autoimmune thyroid or that could be just an estrogen dominant thyroid condition. So that was a great point Justin.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. I think uhh– the last piece to that puzzle is, “Does it even matter if you’re cholesterol’s high?” So, my criteria is, number one, if you’re cholesterol’s over 300, maybe we got to take a look at it. Number two is, “Do we have elevations in inflammatory markers, CRP, homocysteine, fiber antigen?” Okay. If those are high, maybe we got to take a look at it. Number three is how’s your– HTL, the total cholesterol ratio? “Is it greater than five?” If it’s greater than five, maybe we got to look at it. And then the last but not the least, is “How’d you rate the HTL ratio?” If it’s two or below, then it’s probably okay. So it’s not, cholesterol has never cut a dry number. You got to look at, I see a lot of people high in cholesterol, also at kickass HTL. So then their HTL, the total cholesterol ratio is really rock solid.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. Yeah. Oh I hope that helps the…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, next is uhm – 47-year old Strakito, four years overtrained, undernourished and 40 pounds overweight. She is yeast-overgrowth, thyroid are low, all sex hormones are low, blood sugar is rising, what should she address first? Oh, she wants to address the gut first, your thoughts? This is our practitioner MP, the practitioner that wants to address the gut first.
Bridgit Banner: She’s asking if that’s the best choice, or…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yes, that’s the best.
Bridgit Banner: …what kind of thing.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I have my opinion but I want you to go first.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. You know, we talked about this someone on the summit. And a few people said, we’ll see what you think Justin? I can’t remember what you said, so.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: Some people say they work on the hormones exist to give a little relief and a little more energy. Uhh– and then they start doing some of the painful works. So just first the gut and the liver detox, then where some symptoms are gonna come up. Uhh – does it have to be that, I think what we do in our practice. I mean we’re, we’re a little bit all mixed together.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: Uhhm – but, you know, I wanna say you wanna go after the gut in a really intense way ‘til your body is enough, strong enough like to handle it. So those detox pathways are clear. Sometimes you start with some gentle detox, and get the foundations going. Uhhmm – like I, I mentioned briefly like saying you know if I said this in the first time we’re in maybe. So, anyway this time last year, I was having a lot of trouble with spotting, and I was also exposed to toxic molds. I was like, I don’t really know if I’ll get my hormones right ‘til I get the molds right. I have gotten better with the mold, but I feel that you still can’t actually caught pass some of those things and address the hormones with like what I mentioned before, like the hemp oil, and the flax oil, and the fish oil. We knew, so yeah. I think you can kind of massage some of them, sometimes. ‘Cause clearing the gut takes a while. So we get some loving in there. What are your thoughts?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, so. When I hear that though, when I hear addressing the gut, there’s kind of a, a double lifestyle. So when I address the gut, there’s six R’s that we go through. Number one is removing the bad foods, right? That’s totally okay. We can check that one. And to yeah, two, replacing enzymes and acids better. That’s number two. Check. Yes, we can do that. Number three is replacing, or I should say repairing the gut lining. Nutrients that help with the gut lining repair and helping you deal with the inflammation in the gut, and helping you repair the adrenals, the thyroid, and some hormonal issues first. So those are the first three R’s – remove, replace, repair. Okay? So that we can do those first. Now I think when people talk about addressing gut, they tend to the fourth R, which is removing the infection of this biosis. Whatever the critters are. So I always wait, at least one month or two for that. If detox isn’t good, and hormones aren’t good, and blood sugar and immunes not good, that can really create a lot more stress that your body may not have the ability to deal with. You only have one or two months with the patient for them to start seeing something. And if they start moving backwards for one or two months, you’re gonna lose them. You’re not gonna be able to help the clinician. That’s just my personal take based on
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. And I like, this is all individual to every person, and yeah. You have to kind of start most obvious things, and I don’t know who the name of this– you know, just resting. You know, just resting your body and have some great talks and like mindset and emotional health. Just uhhmm – all are part of health too. You know, you overdid it and you’re reassessing like the direction of your health, the direction of your life. Like, ijust resting, just reading books like lying on the sun, going a vacation. These things are very healing as well. So uhhmm – yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally.
Bridgit Banner: Just remember to keep that to your protocols.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And that parasympathetic nervous system going, I think, that has to be part of any functional medicine programmed at the foundational level is to sleep, the good healthy habits, the time to relax, so yeah. That’s a really good point and we don’t want to overlook that.
Bridgit Banner: Huh.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Can detoxifying the liver bring your hormone balance back?
Bridgit Banner: That’s an easy one. And do a lot for– yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I agree. I think, I think as long as your hormones are decent, like you have good institution in the gland, I think that may be enough. But if there’s a lot of dysfunction in the adrenals of the thyroid, that will help with the support of the other side as well. So I think, it totally can for sure though.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah, yes. Some part of the system that a few people mentioned on the summit, and yeah. It’s not the only piece. Nothing ever is. Just one piece. Yeah but it’s actually like what you said just removing all the toxins is important too. Like before you go into taking in the herbs, doing a coffee in the morning. Just make sure you got them out of your diet and out of your home, out of your water supply to just reduce that part.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I think, you already – we don’t, our body will detoxify better just by not putting toxins in. When we think of detoxifying, we’re giving something to help detoxify. But we can also just think about it. let’s just not add stuff as well. And then you mentioned earlier with the fatty liver, that the one of the major stressors on your liver is excess carbohydrates and insulin, because that will cause a fatty liver, which will slow down the filtration too.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. Which is even gross to think about the cause …
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I know.
Bridgit Banner: … of your liver blocking, if everything.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I know. Absolutely. Next, estrogen dominant is related to histamine. HIT is related to methylase, to histamine as well. After addressing diet in gut’s health, bateria, parasites and yeast. We still have ED plus HIT. So, well ED means Estrogen Dominance, HIT means Histamine Intolerance. Then what can we do besides working on methylation?
Bridgit Banner: I’m trying to make sure I got all of that.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: It’s a little confusing with the abbreviation, but I think what they’re saying is, “Hey. I have Estrogen Dominance and I have a Histamine issue. I’ve already worked on the gut. What else can I do besides pushing my detox methylation pathways?” That’s my translation.
Bridgit Banner: Hmmm– I think you can think about hormone production. So I think you can think about what we talked about before – the fats and oils, to get. Depending on your age like, I would do more like Vitex, for like a little younger, early 40’s, but anytime in the 40’s, 50’s, doing like Maca estrogenic herbs.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: If you can pull everything up, you know, pull the progesterone up, it will help balance that the estrogen. So, uhhmm – I think that’s an important piece that sometimes gets missed ‘cause our American, like, culture is always thinking about clearing and detoxing. But I don’t know if this person’s, have their hormones tests. But most of these are also depleted, at this age. So just like pulling hormone production up, you could see that estrogen become balanced.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yep. I totally agree with you. One thing I’ll say, I think you already said it all. Potentially, adding some progesterone, maybe even some pregnenolone, DHEA. But looking at the adrenals too is an important piece.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. You can introduce some things like macon, borage oil. Super easy on your own. Yeah but with a practitioner, you could do some simple progesterone. Uhhmm– also I get some testing for that kind of– I do well on progesterone; I don’t do so well on DHEA, pregnenolone. For my experience, everybody’s kind of different.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And that, I see that too with people that kind of more backed up liver pathways too.
Bridgit Banner: Oh yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: And maybe the mold. Look, ‘cause you mentioned your mold experience. Maybe that was the driving factor with that.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. Back when I tried those, I was living with mold but didn’t know. So, it’s kind of, kind of flavored my whole history like, “Oh.” So, it’s interesting. And I think, you know, we haven’t talked about that. You know, there can be these hidden things. You talked about parasites…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: But you know, I have to learn a lot about mold, and Epstein-Barr Virus, and uhh– all these things I was posting I didn’t know that. Those things really flare up with the changing hormones, not getting a good night sleep. And we talk a little bit about how that high estrogen can affect the immune system, in not a favorable way. And then, just with aging, the immune system can be deteriorating in a sense. So uhhmm – so, yeah, a lot, things can come up. You know if you feel like you’ve tried everything and you’re still sick, my personal lesson is, like, there’s probably something else going on to look for.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Totally. That makes sense. What do you think about supplementing with DIM Postmenopause?
Bridgit Banner: I mean I think it could be done. I guess it could clear some bad estrogen sort of thing. Is that what the person’s thinking?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I mean. I’m kind of little perplexed as well. Maybe the detox pathways are running and they kind of support delivering such. But most people will have lower estrogens, especially if they’re, you know, not adding in a whole bunch of, you know, estrogen as well. So, definitely makes more sense with the cycle of female, right?
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. It’s, again, on issue. Uhhmm – I think DIM is great for like, PCOS. It’s used a lot, you know, in some Estrogen Dominance cases. Also that CDG, I’ve known about just in the last year; that can help. Uhhmm – yeah , I’ve– in my own body has been more effective to build more hormone. And they did not be in everyone’s case. Maybe that’s just mine. And you can get tested. We have one. Maria Claps talks about the importance of testing at any age. And occasionally many women will be older but still have high estrogen, and that’s something to figure out and learn about. Let’s just see what pathways to – I think you run a DUTCH test too just to– see– like I was just curious about this caller like, what are her symptoms, does she feel – has high estrogen, and she’s worried about cancer in her family, or something like that. Yeah, I would say yeah, maybe but I want more information, or maybe they’ll be good to first person that ask.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I think you’re right. I think getting the test on, I think getting the more information on what the symptoms are that made them think they need it would really be the key.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Next is…
Bridgit Banner: Question.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: Love it.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah we’re hitting it. Next is, without getting an organic acid test, is there a kind of a universal protocol supplement that can be taken for hormonal balance. What do you take personally?
Bridgit Banner: Well, I keep saying the same stuff over and over so, more, for me like, for me, definitely the oils. I love magnesium. I love, I love it for this age group. I love it in my own body, I used magnesium chelate. I, I like adore it, even when I’m just getting cramps. This stuff like helps me to prevent like menstrual migraine, menstrual cramps, uhhmm– you know. I take a good quality multivitamin that has, that has the Zinc, that has methylated B vitamins. And I’ll tell you a funny story. I got my hair analyzed like this sooner and I got the results back before but I got to read them. And like in my novice opinion, “Oh magnesium, it’s so high, I better like. Stop taki– a few things looked high.” So I stopped taking everything. I stopped taking. Oh, my gosh, my cycle. So much for stamina. It really made me see, like, getting a good quality source of B vitamins, B vitamins is very important to spark a bunch of things with ovulation hormones. Getting that is important. Taking the extra high dose. I mangled magnesium. Most women need like 600 to 800 milligrams and get in good form. I just have a new client and she’s been taking magnesium for years. I can’t remember the form she’s been taking but…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …oxide–
Bridgit Banner: Yeah something that she’s– I think it was oxide, she’s not getting anything out of it. So I just like said switch to magnesium. I love magnesium. I love fish oil, I mentioned. You don’t need a lot but a little bit. Uhhmm – a little bit of borage oil, or hemp oil. Uhhmm– you know, I eat a lot of nuts and seeds in my diet too, and I think they helped me from hormones.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: Uhhmm– what are the thing– we talked about Zinc, that if you’re not getting much Zinc it might be something you want to up the supplementation on…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yep.
Bridgit Banner: …what other supplements do you like Justin?
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: I think, you already said the foundational things that aren’t even related to female hormones which I think gives people overlooked at, right? So that, what you said is totally foundation. Then add on top of that chase through your Vitex, that would be great for almost any female, especially for your cycling. If you’re more menopausal, you can go more on the specific pheno types of Maca. It’s a great product that I used and carry in my store called Femmenessence. And they have a great type of Maca for cycling females, and a great type of Maca for menopausal females, and it works phenomenal for a lot of cycling issues, and also about a lot of the Hot Flashes. ‘Cause remember Hot Flashes especially if they happen at night. They screw up women’s sleep. If their sleep’s screwed up, and their blood sugar’s screwed up, that throws everything off. So I like the Maca and the Chaste tree, you know. What’s going on.
Bridgit Banner: Yeah. You know, I, I have some. You know, I’ve used sleep aids, or like anxiety aids, you know, like now, on the summit, a lot. And I think it’s okay to this, at this age group. Like, don’t just like try to bear it, you know. If, you need to sleep, so you take some 5-HTP. I want a trick I’ve learned from my elevated practitioners, like, do some more almond milk and a half teaspoon of nutmeg. You know, that’s really calming at night. Uhhmm– what else do I take? You know I have, like, an herbal one – like valerian, stuff like that, which is calming. I have a whole bunch of things around to eat just depending on the day. Uhh – so, and that doesn’t exactly sound like it’s about hormones, but it kind’a is ‘cause you need that good night sleep to, like, get your hormones stabilized.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Huge. What do you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Bridgit?
Bridgit Banner: Oh, I love it. So this morning I have a cheap pudding and uhhmm – I have it on with some chocolate flakes, walnuts…
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Nice.
Bridgit Banner: … glazed and on top some fresh fruit. So, uhh – I’m a little allergic to eggs so I don’t, you know, that makes – you know the word. ‘Cause I do a sausage, like, like a little frozen organic sausage uhhmm– Sometimes I have, occasionally I have, like, a soup for breakfast, like a – This can be super easy. You keep a box of broth in your fridge and like a teem of Kewas, some greens. Sometimes I have that. What else? I’m giving you breakfast ideas ‘cause I think it’s a hard one for folks. I do smoothie sometimes. Sometimes I help people do some trail mix. I do hard boiled eggs, so get some protein. I really avoid carbs in the morning. That’s very important to me. But I do have carbs usually on lunch and dinner.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yep.
Bridgit Banner: For lunch, I sometimes have leftovers. I love working from home because I can have, I can turn things together, like some leftover rice, you know, fry some vegetables. Try to have like some chicken sausage, which I had laying around. Uhhmm – I definitely just kind of put stuff together, for pretty healthy lunch, uhhmm – which, yeah – I love that option. For dinner, you know, we usually have something like a piece of fish, or chicken, uhhmm – you know, often an animal protein, and then uhhmm – some green stuff, you know, a steamed broccoli or, I’m, I’m putting a lot of fat and everything, so my steamed broccoli’s gonna have hemp oil all over it. I put hemp oil yeah, hemp oil, hemp oil on my lunch. I put hemp oil, you know. I put hemp oils everywhere, nuts everywhere, lots and lots of seeds. Uhhmm – and then maybe we have like sweet potato fries. So, we do some potato, some rice or Keema are pretty much the carbs that I would eat.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah.
Bridgit Banner: Uhhmm – what else? Yeah. That’s kind of the theme.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Excellent. I think you’re rock solid. Two other questions; we’ll hit them rapid fire. Does it matter for Dacogens be in pill form or powder form? It depends. Certain female hormone issues or tonics, I do find sometimes giving the liquid. Tincture-based herbs can make them a little more potent.
Bridgit Banner: Hmmm–
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …a take on that? Do you agree or no?
Bridgit Banner: I would, yeah. That’s like a great question. I mean, I think the tinctures feel strong, but if you’ll take out a small sip of oil. If you take – I bought all this like powdered Maca and stuff to make these elixir drinks. I don’t like them. I don’t like to, you know, the powder in them. So, it takes some things… but I do have a Maca powder, I make them to smoothies. Effectiveness, efficacy, I’m not totally sure if, you know, I have to research that. But I do think it’s important to take what you’re gonna take. Have a variety. Like, I’m willing to take pills, ‘cause I’m pretty okay with it. But it’s nice to also have some things that are liquid. Some things that you can rub on, like, I feel, especially with my mold. I really learned, like, it’s. Uhhh– It can get exhausting and so expensive to take so many supplements. And if there’s something you can do that’s in another form, I’m really holding on to that a lot sider lately. So I would just tell the colors rise efficacy maybe on home ingredients but I like things in all sorts of forms, and I think it’s good to experiment.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah, I think it’s totally good to individualize. Last question, Cortisol is normal except spikes at a very high at around three(3) to five(5) PM. So this person wants to know, is that Adrenal Fatigue stage 2? Again, I think we did the whole test to see it, to know where the Cortisol levels are at. Stage 2 is typically, relatively, normal Cortisol levels, with aberrations and rhythm, and lower DHEA in general. So I think we’re missing some info. Any comments?
Bridgit Banner: You know, the thing that came to me, and I’m not an elevated practitioner. But is it, is it vital that wind one. That’s, that, that imbalance is in the afternoon, and that’s the time I feel imbalanced too. And a lot of people have this wind imbalance ‘cause we’re so busy nowadays, doing so much stuff. Uhhmm– so that’s like a really key time of the day for me to rest. And that can be tough ‘cause it’s like the end of your day, when you’re gonna pick up your kids. But I would just personally tune in to like how that time of day feels for them, and like what are they doing, what and where the stimulants were like, you know, just, are they eating snack always right before that spike, or in a certain stress trigger, or maybe the body’s just trying to like pick them up. ___?Slob?__ but not sure. I think it’s interesting there with three to five.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Yeah. I think potentially like a blood sugar drop, had their lunch around 11 or 12, maybe their blood sugar’s dropping so maybe they need a mini meal, maybe scheduled a meditation in there, maybe keeps an adaption …
Bridgit Banner: Yeah.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: …kind of in your system during that time of the day; a couple of options.
Bridgit Banner: I have to eat at that time of the day. Like, it’s not optional for me, and the more I eat, the better. I mean maybe I should have my dinner there. Uhh – you know maybe someday I’ll also tea in that earlier dinner. But I, if I can really heavy snack. Yeah, my butcher, just dropping items, snacks constantly. One, probably the one snack a day that’s not optional for me.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Got it. Perfect. Very good. Well again, closing up here. We got the Hormone Balance After 40 Summit. We’ll put information below in the YouTube description and the podcast description, so make sure you check out that summit. Forty (40), or thirty (30) years old, great people are gonna be there. I’m gonna be there in one of first days, so make sure you tune in to see me.
Bridgit Banner: Day one.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Day one.
Bridgit Banner: …this guy.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Love it, love it. Very cool. Any other comments or concern, anything else you want to address to the listeners or…
Bridgit Banner: No. I think that’s– it was a lot of fun. You know, I’m not always this, like, on my toes but it’s good for me. Just tried, tried to hang with it. There were really good questions. Then it was always fine with you Dr. Justin.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Thank you. What’s that summit URL link again?
Bridgit Banner: after40summit and it’s a number 40.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: After forty, the number 40? Summit S-U-M-M-I-T? One ‘t’?
Bridgit Banner: Yes. Two m’s, one ‘t’. It should come up.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Perfect. Love it. Bridgit.
Bridgit Banner: Bye everyone.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Well, thank you so much for the great information. You have a great day.
Bridgit Banner: You too.
Dr. Justin Marchegiani: Thank you.
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